Egypt Diary 7

We started from our hotel right after breakfast at 8am. It was a beautiful day and the drive was good. Our first stop after driving for about an hour was for coffee after which we headed straight to Alexandria and reached there almost 3 hours after leaving Cairo.

Kom el-Shogafa.

Our first stop in Alexandria was Catacomb of Kom el-Shogafa, a place which was discovered by accident in 1900. Legend has it that on 28 September 1900, a cart full of stone was travelling when the donkey took a misstep and disappeared in a hole. When people tried to rescue the donkey, they discovered a set of rock-cut tombs in an ancient catacomb. It is a matter of record that somebody by the name of Monsieur Es-Sayed Aly Gibrah reported that he had accidentally broken into a vault of an underground tomb.

The catacomb is truly an amazing structure 100 feet below the ground constructed in 2nd century AD in a mixture of Egyptian, Greek and Roman styles. It is believed that this catacomb was initially started for a single family but was later expanded for reasons yet unknown to us. There are stairs leading to the base of the tomb with places for sitting. There is a round shaft in the middle of the structure.

In excavations a lot of pottery was discovered which were bought by the people bringing in food for those buried there. Bones of horses, were also recovered proving that the favourite horses were also laid to rest there. The entire area outside the catacomb is littered with the archaeological finds.

Inside the catacomb.Inside the catacomb.Inside the catacomb.Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa.Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa.Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa.Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa.

Pompey’s pillar.

Our next stop was the only surviving Seven Wonders of the World, Pompey’s pillar or the Memorial of Diocletian. It is a 28 m high red granite pillar and the highest memorial column in Egypt. It has a diameter of 2.7 m which tapers to 2.3m near the top. On its top, on the western side, there is an inscription that the invincible Postumus has erected this monument in honour of the Roman Emperor, Alexandria Diocletian between 284-305 AD. Around the pillar is the Serapium temple which lies in ruins now. It was dedicated to Egyptian Greek God Serapius and was built by Ptolemy I in 300 BC. It was destroyed in 391 AD by a Christian mob led by Bishop Theophilus.

Serapium templePompey’s pillarPompey’s pillarInside Pompey’s pillar

After this we headed to the Fort Qaitbey built in the 14th century by Sultan Qaitbey to defend Alexandria from the Ottoman Empire who actually took charge of Egypt in 1512. The fort is built on a narrow piece of land which extends from the cornice. It offers a fantastic view of the Mediterranean sea. The fort was badly damaged by the British in 1882 but was later restored around the turn of 20th century. Currently it houses a small navy museum.

Next we headed for lunch at Athineos for a typical Egyptian grilled fish and rice lunch. It was an awesome lunch and view of cornice from the restaurant window was simply superb. From here we went to Alexandria library.

The Royal Library of Alexandria was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world and was dedicated to Muses, the nine goddess of the arts. It flourished during the Ptolemaic dynasty, from 3 century BC to 30th century BC. There were lecture halls, meeting rooms and gardens in it. Most of the books of that time were on Papyrus scrolls.

Sadly Julius Caesar’s army burned it down. During 1980s, a new library was built here by contributions from many countries around the world notably the Middle East and France. On 17 October 2002, 1600 years after the original was destroyed the new library was commissioned.

The new building has a Conference Center and a Planetarium apart from the main library. There is a library for visually impaired people and a restoration library. The building can house 20 million books and currently has 200,000 copies, 10,000 manuscripts and 50,000 rare books apart from a state of art book binding and a automatic copier on premises. It has been designed to last two centuries and currently receives about 800,000 visitors per day.

From the library we returned to Cairo bringing our Egypt holiday to an end. We returned home via Duabi with a truck load of sweet memories of mystical land Egypt.

Library of Alexandria. All languages of the world find a mention here.Model of Library of Alexandria.Ist printing press.Eco friendly interiors of Library of Alexandria.Reading hall of the Library of Alexandria.Outside the Library of Alexandria.Planetarium inside the Library of Alexandria.